Systems and methods for syndicated distribution of electronic content

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for online distribution of content by receiving, from a user&#39;s mobile device, a request for a web page hosted by a publisher&#39;s CMS; applying a rules engine to analyze a received URL according to a set of rules identifying one or more website types and/or referrers; if the received URL satisfies the rules engine, redirecting the received request to a syndication server system hosted within a global CDN; adding a URL of the web page to a missing content queue and redirecting the request to the publisher&#39;s CMS if the CDN syndication server does not contain a suitable mobile-formatted version of the web page; and delivering a package of binary compressed content of the web page to a stub page cached at the user&#39;s mobile device by the CDN syndication server, using recirculation and monetization components chosen by the publisher.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally tomanaging the distribution of online content. More specifically,exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems andmethods for syndicated distribution of electronic content over theInternet.

BACKGROUND

Recently, it has been widely reported that mobile devices are the newleader in content. Whereas people used to consume the majority of theircontent through television and desktop websites, people are more oftenturning to their mobile devices (e.g., cell phones, tablets, PDAs,smartphones, wearables, etc.) to view electronic content. People arealso increasingly viewing mobile content through non-browser mobileapps, such as social networking mobile applications.

Currently, in the context of mobile applications, when a user selects awebsite link within a mobile application, the app opens a “webview”within the current view portal, retrieves content of the requested webpage from a remote web server, and loads and assembles the web page forthe user to view. The app also usually enables the user to click a backbutton, e.g., an “x,” or some other user element to close the webview toreturn to the mobile application in which the webview had been opened.Notably, the web page is loaded within an in-app browser of theapplication, such as a social networking application, using content thatis hosted exogenous to the application. For example, if a user isbrowsing a feed of a social networking application and clicks on anarticle, such as a Huffington Post article, the social networkingapplication will open a light browser within the app, request (“call”)the article from a Huffington Post web server, and load the page withinthe browser within the social networking application.

One downside to in-app webviews is that they are traditionally very slow(sometimes taking as long as 10 seconds to load a full web page), theyhave high rates of crashes and users aborting, and they also typicallydo not pass through cookies, user data, or other sign-in data. In viewof the downsides of in-app webviews, some social networks are nowexperimenting with implementing content hosting systems to actually hostweb content to be clicked on from within the social network'sapplication. The social networks are touting that doing so may improvethe speed of loading content within their applications, and that theycan do so while maintaining publishers' and advertisers' ability to buyand sell ads within the content, despite the content being hosted by thesocial network. The social networks are encouraging publishers to hosttheir content on the social networks' content hosting systems by usingboth positive and negative incentives. For example, social networks thatare uniquely large may be leveraging their ability to alter theiralgorithms for determining what content appears within the socialnetwork's news feed based on whether the publisher has opted-in to thesocial network's content hosting system. In other words, some socialnetworks may have the ability to “traffic shape” away from web, andtoward their own content hosting ecosystem. This may cause a precipitousdrop in social-network-referred page views for non-partners (i.e.,publishers that are not opted-in to the ecosystem).

To publishers, this regime of social-network-hosted content means thatsome mobile traffic will be sold through actual mobile, vs. through aregime established by the social networks. This may involve publishersmaintaining two different sales systems: one for traditional mobiletraffic, and one for managing content delivered through the socialnetwork's ecosystem. Joining the social network's content hosting systemmay require the publishers to agree to rendering the content nativelythrough the social network's app, using social network's ad servers,abiding by the social network's policies and formats, and enabling thesocial network to act as the remnant monetization provider at the socialnetwork's desired revenue share share. Such a scenario may preventpublishers from rendering content in their own formats, and may preventpublishers from performing recirculation and native advertising andcontent marketing.

Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods for facilitating fastand configurable distribution of website content to mobile applications.More specifically, a need exists for enabling selective distributing orsyndicating of website content through mobile applications usingtemplatized, cached versions of web-, mobile-, and app-optimizedcontent. The present disclosure is therefore directed to systems andmethods for improving the distribution of website content using CDNhosting of templatized, cached versions of web-, mobile-, andapp-optimized content.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to certain embodiments, computer-implemented methods aredisclosed for online distribution of electronic content. One methodincludes receiving, from a user's mobile device, a request for a webpage hosted by a publisher's content management system (“CMS”), therequest including the URL of the requested web site; applying a rulesengine to analyze the received URL according to a set of rules, the setof rules identifying one or more website types and/or one or morereferrers; if the received URL satisfies the rules engine, redirectingthe received request to a syndication server system hosted within aglobal content distribution network (“CDN”), the CDN maintaining fasttemplatized web-, mobile-, and/or app-formatted versions of the webpage; adding a URL of the web page to a missing content queue andredirecting the request to a web server of the publisher's CMS if theCDN syndication server does not contain a suitable web-, mobile-, and/orapp-formatted version of the web page; and delivering a package ofbinary compressed content of the web page to a stub page cached at theuser's mobile device by the CDN syndication server, using recirculationand monetization components chosen by the publisher.

According to certain embodiments, systems are disclosed for onlinedistribution of electronic content. One system includes a data storagedevice storing instructions for executing an online distribution ofelectronic content; and a processor configured to execute theinstructions to perform a method including: receiving, from a user'smobile device, a request for a web page hosted by a publisher's contentmanagement system (“CMS”), the request including the URL of therequested web site; applying a rules engine to analyze the received URLaccording to a set of rules, the set of rules identifying one or morewebsite types and/or one or more referrers; if the received URLsatisfies the rules engine, redirecting the received request to asyndication server system hosted within a global content distributionnetwork (“CDN”), the CDN maintaining fast templatized web-, mobile-,and/or app-formatted versions of the web page; adding a URL of the webpage to a missing content queue and redirecting the request to a webserver of the publisher's CMS if the CDN syndication server does notcontain a suitable web-, mobile-, and/or app-formatted version of theweb page; and delivering a package of binary compressed content of theweb page to a stub page cached at the user's mobile device by the CDNsyndication server, using recirculation and monetization componentschosen by the publisher.

According to certain embodiments, a computer-readable medium isdisclosed storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, causethe processor to execute an online distribution of electronic content,including: receiving, from a user's mobile device, a request for a webpage hosted by a publisher's content management system (“CMS”), therequest including the URL of the requested web site; applying a rulesengine to analyze the received URL according to a set of rules, the setof rules identifying one or more website types and/or one or morereferrers; if the received URL satisfies the rules engine, redirectingthe received request to a syndication server system hosted within aglobal content distribution network (“CDN”), the CDN maintaining fasttemplatized web-, mobile-, and/or app-formatted versions of the webpage; adding a URL of the web page to a missing content queue andredirecting the request to a web server of the publisher's CMS if theCDN syndication server does not contain a suitable web-, mobile-, and/orapp-formatted version of the web page; and delivering a package ofbinary compressed content of the web page to a stub page cached at theuser's mobile device by the CDN syndication server, using recirculationand monetization components chosen by the publisher.

Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will beset forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will beapparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of thedisclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosedembodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements andcombinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of thedisclosed embodiments.

FIGS. 1A-1C are schematic screenshots of a mobile interface of a mobileapplication showing a content feed (FIG. 1A), a “Loading . . . ” screen(FIG. 1B), and a loaded web page within a webview of the mobileapplication (FIG. 1C), according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary system, servers, andentities involved in online distribution of electronic web content andadvertisements, according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for managing thedistribution of electronic content and advertisements over the Internet,according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a simplified functional block diagram of a computer that maybe configured as a host server, for example, to function as a CDN serverand/or a content and/or advertisement server, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of thedisclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

FIG. 1A depicts a screenshot 10 of a mobile interface for viewingcontent within a mobile application. The mobile application may be anytype of application that displays links to web pages. For example, themobile application may be a social networking application that displaysa social network feed comprising a plurality of posts that a user canscroll through and selectively click on to display websites pointed toby the links. As shown in the exemplary screenshot 10, the mobileapplication may be that of a social network and may include socialnetwork navigation elements 11, e.g., for selectively viewing a “newsstand,” “requests,” “messenger,” “notifications,” etc. Moreover, asshown in FIG. 1A, the mobile application may display a plurality oflinks or “stories,” such as links/stories 12 and 14. The links and/orstories may be previews or thumbnails of web pages, photos, text,hyperlinks, or any content that a user may selectively touch, tap,swipe, click, or otherwise select to view HTML content reachable throughthe displayed link.

As described above, in the current state of the art, many mobileapplications implement “webviews” to display web pages linked to withinthe applications. For example, the well-known ANDROID mobile operatingsystem implements a Chrome-powered webview for displaying web pageswithin applications executing on the ANDROID operating system. Likewise,the APPLE IOS mobile operating system implements the WKWebView- andUlWebView-type webviews for displaying web pages within applicationsexecuting on the IOS operating system. Because these webviews initiateHTML calls to web servers hosting the linked HTML content, theygenerally take as long as 10 seconds or more to load an entire web pagelinked to within the application. As shown in FIG. 1B, a user often seesa blank screen and a “Loading . . . ” notification 15 while the webviewof the application is retrieving and assembling the various components(e.g., text, images, ads, etc.) of a given linked web page. Thistime-consuming process can cause users to abort or divert from viewingthe desired content, which results in lost page views, lost“impressions,” and therefore lost revenue, not to mention userdissatisfaction.

Assuming a user has waited for a mobile application's web viewer to loadan entire page, then the user may be able to view the web page fromwithin the mobile application, as shown in FIG. 1C. Specifically, whilethe user may still view and manipulate the social network navigationelements 11, the user may also be able to view and interact with theloaded web page 18, from within the mobile application. The user may tapor otherwise select a “back” button or “x” button to return to a newsfeed or other display of the social network. As described above, thisoverall process may have numerous drawbacks, especially involved in thetime associated with retrieving from a remote web server and assemblingwithin the webviewer the numerous components of any given web page.

Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to systems and methodsfor reducing the amount of time required for loading and displaying aweb page within a mobile application, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1C (and asa corollary, reducing the time that a partial web page or loadingscreen, e.g., screen 15 of FIG. 1B, is shown). Specifically, the presentdisclosure is directed to systems and methods for syndicating electroniccontent using a content distribution network configured with fast andflexible webview and mobile versions of content to be displayed within amobile application. The present disclosure provides an alternative tothe two suboptimal choices of hosting publishers' content on their ownservers and hosting publishers' content on social networking entities'servers. Specifically, the present disclosure eliminates the uniqueselling proposition offered by the social networks because it enablespublishers to load content extremely quickly within the mobileenvironment, e.g., within social networking and other mobileapplications.

Assuming that each publisher has a content management system (“CMS”)that drives content delivered to each of (i) web, (ii) mobile, and (iii)in-app, the present disclosure is directed to systems and methods ofsetting up and running a new server system (referred to herein as a“syndication server,” “syndication server systems,” or “syndicationCDN”) that receives content requests from users who are viewing andconsuming content linked through social networking applications. In oneembodiment, the systems and methods may involve selectively receivingcontent requests based on (i) web vs. mobile, and (ii) referrer. Thus,the publisher/CMS could decide, e.g., all mobile traffic from a givensocial networking mobile application may be redirected from thepublisher/CMS to the syndication server. The publisher/CMS can furtherset numerous various criteria for diverting traffic from its own CMSsystems to a syndication server system consistent with the presentdisclosure. For example, the publisher/CMS might divert traffic based onURL, domain, mobile device type, mobile application used (referrer),user ID, cookie data, time-of-day, day-of-week, and so on.

As will be described in more detail below, the presently disclosedsystems and methods may involve at least two alternative embodiments. Inone embodiment, the publisher may implement the system and methods fordeciding which links are hosted by the syndication server. In a secondembodiment, the publisher directs all traffic to the syndication serverand the syndication server implements the systems and methods fordeciding which links to serve up. In the first, publisher-implementedembodiment, the publisher may still host its own link and establish itsown rules engine that decides which links go to the syndication server.In this case, requests would resolve through the rules engine of the CMSrules engine and then redirect to the syndication server. In the second,CDN-implemented embodiment, a link generator could be established forredirecting desired articles directly to the syndication server. Thesyndication server may implement a rules engine configured to determinewhether each article will be served from the publisher or thesyndication server.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary network environment 100 and systemsconsistent with embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, asshown in FIG. 2, at a high level, environment 100 may include clientdevices 102, various publisher systems 110, and syndication serversystems 150, all disposed in communication with the Internet 101. At ahigh level, the various publisher systems 110 and syndication serversystems 150 may be disposed in communication with each other through anydesired channel, which may or may not pass through the Internet 101. Itshould be appreciated that, while only one publisher's system is shown,in reality, the present disclosure may operate in the context ofnumerous (e.g., hundreds, thousands, or even millions of) publishersdisposed in communication with the Internet 101 and selectively hostingtheir content through a syndication server system 150. Moreover, itshould be appreciated that while only a selection of user devices 102are depicted as being in communication with the Internet 101, thepresent disclosure of course contemplates that millions, hundreds ofmillions, or even billions of client user devices 102 may be configuredto receive publisher content from syndication server systems over avast, global content distribution network (“CDN”) operating across theInternet 101.

In one embodiment, the syndication server systems 150 may host contentof the publisher in multiple embodiments, including web views, mobileviews, and/or app views, and it may do so in a manner that is extremelyfast, consistent, and customizable. In one embodiment, the syndicationserver systems 150 may host template or “templatized” versions of thepublishers' web sites in a manner that enables fast caching, fastformatting, and fast CDN delivery. The syndication server systems 150may also provide publishers with configuration and flexibility foroptional recirculation and monetization components that thepublisher/CMS can optionally choose to use, thereby enabling publishersto use their own ad tags. For inbound traffic that is mobile and comesfrom the social network, the new server will be able to load content inless than a second, or at least less than 1.5 seconds, and still givepublishers the flexibility to work with any format and recirculationthey desire.

According to the presently disclosed techniques, the syndication serversystems 150 enable client devices to avoid transmitting the normallylarge quantity of HTML requests through a mobile app webview. Instead,the presently disclosed syndication server systems will cache, in aclient device's local browser, a stub page that is configured to make asingle binary call for web page content to be loaded up within themobile application's webview. Thus, the first time that any user acrossthe network requests a web page that satisfies the given criteria (e.g.,an opted-in publisher's page referred by a given social networkingapplication), the syndication server systems 150 will cache in thedevice's local browser a small stub page that, from then on, will make asingle binary HTTP call to the server for receiving package of binarycompressed lumped content of all the text and images rendering in itsdocument object model on the client side. Thus, the second time (say,for example, out of a million), that an article is requested, therequest may be merely a cache hit on the client to the stub page, i.e.,a single HTTP call out for all the content to load. Thus, the user isalready reading the content, and then all the secondary back-and-forthpixels may be fired for content measurement, data collection, etc., in adelay-load asynchronous packaging container.

In one embodiment, the systems may implement a queue for handling URLsfor which content is not yet cached. Specifically, the system mayoperate such that if a user selects a link for which the system has notyet cached content, then the syndicated server systems may redirect theuser's client device to an existing web server of the publisher orpublisher's CMS, and then add the URL/link to a queue in the syndicationserver systems to alert the syndication systems that the web page of theURL/link should be cached. Advantageously, because the system may referuser's back to the publisher's CMS, the system may avoid losing animpression in the event that the syndication system is unable to deliverthe requested content.

In some cases, the embodiments of the present disclosure may beimplemented in self-service portal by which publishers may templatizedand upload content into the system with real-time updating of estimatedor average load times of the content. Specifically, for any given page,a publisher may upload the content, view average load times, view totalpage views, view geographic source of page views, view numbers and statsof visits, number and percentages of bounces (i.e., diversions away fromthe content pre-, during-, or post-loading), and time on page. Thepublisher may also view the source of content in terms of the referringsocial application (e.g., FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.).Publishers may use the self-service portal to generate templates, andview the estimated page load time as it changes in real-time dependingon the content, images, etc. loaded into the template. In some cases,publishers may implement APIs to incorporate templates for frequentlyused content, consistent with a given site's formatting, content, etc.For example, a publisher may have a different API for each site, and aplurality of page/content templates associated with each site's API.

As described above, and now shown in FIG. 2, in many cases, a publishermay implement CMS systems 112 configured to deliver content through webservers 114, mobile servers 116, and/or application “app” servers 118.Moreover, as shown in FIG. 2, the exemplary syndication server systems150 consistent with the present disclosure may be disposed incommunication with a database 152 storing web-formatted content, adatabase 154 storing mobile-formatted content, and a database 156storing app-formatted content. The web-formatted, mobile-formatted,and/or app-formatted databases 152-156 may be configured to store stubpages associated with various domains, web sites, and/or even individualweb pages. For example, syndication server systems 150 may crawl theInternet to obtain content for storing within web-formatted,mobile-formatted, and/or app-formatted databases 152-156. Theweb-formatted, mobile-formatted, and/or app-formatted databases 152-156may store content and/or format templates of entire domains or specificweb pages. The web-formatted, mobile-formatted, and/or app-formatteddatabases 152-156 may also store packaged binary content (e.g.,compressed text and/or images) to be cached and loaded up within amobile application executing on one or more mobile devices 102. Thus,the syndication server systems 150 may be configured to respond torequests from publishers (e.g., via CMS systems 112) and/or from manythousands of client devices 102 for various website stub pages ortemplates, as well as highly-efficient, fast-loading, packaged web pagecontent.

In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the publisher CMS systems mayimplement a rules engine 120 for enabling the publisher to control whichURLs/links are directed to and hosted by the syndication server systems150. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment, syndication serversystems 150 may implement a rules engine 158 for enabling the publisherto avoid implementing a rules engine for controlling which links/URLsare directed to and hosted by the syndication server systems 150. Itshould be appreciated that in one embodiment, the CMS systems 112implement rules engine 120 whereas syndication server 150 does notimplement such a rules engine; in one embodiment, syndication server 150implements rules engine 158 whereas CMS systems 112 do not implementsuch a rules engine; and in yet another embodiment, both systemsimplement overlapping and/or complementary rules engines, with CMSsystems 112 implementing rules engine 120 and syndication server systems150 implementing rules engine 158. As also shown in FIG. 2, in oneembodiment, syndication server systems 150 may implement a missingcontent queue 160 for storing URLs or links to articles or web pagesthat have not yet been cached in one or more web-formatted,mobile-formatted, and/or app-formatted databases 152-156.

As used herein, the terms “user” and “viewer” may be usedinterchangeably and both refer to an individual or entity accessing orattempting to access an Internet website using any device that isconnected to the Internet 101, such as a computer, mobile device,television, or other device connected to, or capable of connecting tothe Internet 101. The users may access the Internet 101 using a webbrowser or mobile application of their mobile devices 102. The mobileapplications or web browsers of user devices 102 may save informationabout the user, such as the user's email address, other unique identityinformation, and/or the user's attributes, such as geographic location,website history, age, gender, search history, profession, etc. Forexample, the mobile applications or web browsers may save each user'sinformation in a cookie or other suitable storage form from which theuser's information may be retrieved and be accessible to a server, suchas an ad server or content distribution network server 150.

In one embodiment, user devices 102 may be owned and used by one or morepeople, who may be viewers of web pages over the Internet, eitherthrough a mobile browser, mobile application, or web browser stored onrespective user devices. As described above, user devices 102 mayinclude any type of electronic device configured to send and receivedata, such as websites and electronic advertisements, over the Internet.For example, each of user devices 102 may include a server, personalcomputer, tablet computer, mobile device, smartphone, and/or personaldigital assistant (“PDA”) disposed in communication with the Internet.Each of user devices 102 may have a web browser, mobile browser, and/ormobile application installed for receiving and displaying web and/or adcontent from web servers. Thus, each of user devices 102 may beconfigured to receive and display data that is received from one or moreof publisher servers 112-118, advertiser servers, and syndication serversystems 150, among any other web servers, domain name system (“DNS”)servers, content distribution network (“CDN”) servers, etc., over theInternet. As described above, in one embodiment, a user may own and,simultaneously or intermittently, use one or more of user devices 102,whether of similar or different type.

Publisher web servers 110 may be owned and/or operated by any entitieshaving inventories of available online advertising space. For example,publishers may include online content providers, search engines, e-mailprograms, or any other online site or program having online usertraffic. Publishers may interact with user devices 102, advertiserservers or “ad servers” (not shown), and syndication server systems 150,through publisher servers 112, 114, 116, 118 connected to the Internet.Thus, publishers may be able to communicate content and/or inventoryinformation, such as articles, text, images, photos, videos, user data,site information, demographic information, cost information, etc., toother entities in the environment of FIG. 2.

Publisher systems 110 and/or publisher CMS system 112 may in some caseshost a plurality of related websites served from a single web domain orrelated web domains. The publisher web pages or other content may be anyweb document or other web resource that may be accessed through a webbrowser. The publisher web pages or other content may be in any suitableformat that is accessible by a web browser, such as, in HTML or XHTMLformat. The publisher web pages or other content may include text,graphics, video, images or any other types, or combination of types, ofcontent viewable by a web browser. For example, the publisher web pagesor other content may be primarily directed to financial news and mayinclude current news about financial markets, with text, graphics, andimages relating to financial markets. Of course, publisher web pages orother content may be related to any other type of subject matter orcontent. For example, a publisher may be an operator of a blog, a newssite, a web portal, an e-commerce website, a social networking website,or any other publication of web content.

It should be appreciated that a publisher's website may be provided by acontent provider through a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) or anInternet Protocol (“IP”) address that provides a location or an addressfor one or more servers on which a website resides. The website may bedistributed by the one or more servers of the content provider. Acontent delivery network (“CDN”) is a collection of servers locatedacross the Internet. CDN providers provide infrastructure (e.g., anetwork of proxy servers) to content providers to achieve timely andreliable delivery of content over the Internet. The CDN's proxy serverstypically cache, or store, frequently accessed content of the contentprovider, and then locally fulfill successive requests for the samecontent, eliminating repetitive transmission of identical content overnetwork links. A user, such as individuals, businesses, or governments,uses personal computers or communication devices, such as smart phones,to access content over a CDN, which is originally provided by contentproviders from the one or more primary servers.

The Internet allows clients, such as web browsers on a user's machine,to use HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) to request websites fromservers. The server processes the request and sends a response back tothe client. HTTP is built on a client-server model in which a clientaccesses the content of the server.

A CDN is used to deliver content, such as websites, streaming media, andapplications, to the client running on a user's computer. The CDNincludes distributed content delivery nodes that are arranged forefficient delivery of content on behalf of the content providers. Arequest from a client for content is directed from the computer of theuser to the Internet through a “point of presence,” such as an InternetService Provider (ISP), and hence to a server of the CDN (rather thanbeing sent to the server of the content provider itself). Such routingminimizes the response time for data requests and provides high qualitybandwidth. Also, such networks provide more efficient and cost-effectivedistribution to the computers of users.

CDNs will usually cache the content of the content provider's serverlocally. If a request for content that has not been cached, it generallywill go directly to a primary server to retrieve the content. A proxy,sometimes referred to as a proxy server, acts as both a server and aclient for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients. Inthis manner, the overhead required within a CDN to deliver cacheablecontent is minimized. Persons skilled in the art will also know theprocesses CDNs use to generate and deliver cached content.

As shown in FIG. 2, any of syndication servers 150 and correspondingdatabases 152-156 may be implemented across a global CDN. Thesyndication servers 150 may include any type of server or plurality ofservers configured to process content distribution information frompublishers, promotional, and/or advertising inventory information fromthe advertisers and/or publishers, either directly or indirectly. Forexample, the syndication servers 150 may process parameters relating towhich websites, web pages, links, URLs, referrers, etc. to host on theCDN. The syndication servers 150 may also receive or generate processingparameters relating to publishing content formatting, monetization,recirculation, etc., from a publisher.

In certain embodiments, syndication servers 150 may be implemented asremote web servers that receive content from publishers and servecontent from publishers on mobile applications of the user devices 102.The syndication servers 150 may be configured to serve content acrossvarious domains of publishers. The syndication servers 150 may also beconfigured to serve content based on contextual targeting of web sites,search results, and/or user/viewer information. In addition, thesyndication servers 150 may be operated in coordination with one or moreseparate ad servers. Alternatively, in addition to performing thefunctions described above, the syndication servers 150 may also performthe functions of an ad server. Together, one or more ad servers and thesyndication servers 150 may form an advertising and content network.

The advertising and content network may communicate with advertisers andcontent publishers to receive and save in memory, various parameters andinstructions for displaying advertisements and publishing content onvarious websites. The advertising and content network may receive dataregarding users, such as information regarding the user's identity,demographics, and/or search history. The components of the advertisingand content network, e.g. the ad server and the syndication servers 150,may process that user data in view of the various parameters receivedfrom advertisers and content publishers, and then transmit to thecontent publishers what advertisements and/or content to publish so asto achieve a selective targeting of content and advertising to the userdevices 102. The syndication servers 150 may function to control thesyndication or distribution of content and advertising in theadvertising and content network.

The syndication servers 150 may include one or more computing systemsconfigured to receive information from entities in environment 100,process the information, and generate instructions for executingdistribution of content and/or advertising, according to methodsdescribed herein. The syndication servers 150 may include any type orcombination of computing systems, such as clustered computing machinesand/or servers. In one embodiment, as shown in system 400 of FIG. 4, thesyndication server 150 may be an assembly of hardware, including amemory 410, 420, a central processing unit (“CPU”) 430, one or morecommunication ports 450, and/or a user interface 440. Memory 410, 420may include any type of RAM 420 or ROM 410 embodied in a physicalstorage medium, such as magnetic storage including floppy disk, harddisk, or magnetic tape; semiconductor storage such as solid state disk(SSD) or flash memory; optical disc storage; or magneto-optical discstorage. CPU 430 may include one or more processors for processing dataaccording to instructions stored in the memory. The functions of theprocessor may be provided by a single dedicated processor or by aplurality of processors. Moreover, the processor may include, withoutlimitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, or any otherhardware capable of executing software. User interface 440 may includeany type or combination of input/output devices, such as a displaymonitor, keyboard, and/or mouse.

As discussed above, the functions of the advertising and content networkmay be performed by a combination of an ad server and syndicationservers 150 or may be performed by syndication servers 150 alone. Adservers may include any type of servers configured to processadvertising information from advertisers and/or inventory informationfrom the syndication servers 150 and/or publishers, either directly orindirectly. In certain embodiments, ad servers may be remote web serversthat receive advertising information from advertisers and serve ads tobe placed by publishers. For example, ad servers may receive parametersfrom advertisers related to user attributes and pricing (e.g. how muchthe advertiser may be willing to pay for its advertisement to be viewedby a user who matches its user attribute parameters) so that the adserver may save these parameters in memory and then determine, based oninformation received about the potential viewer of a website and theadvertiser parameters whether an advertisement should be shown to theuser.

Ad servers may be configured to serve ads across various domains ofcontent publishers, for example, based on advertising informationprovided by advertisers. Ad servers may also be configured to serve adsbased on contextual targeting of web sites, search results, and/or userprofile information. In some embodiments, ad servers may be configuredto serve ads based on information and instructions received from asyndication server. The ad server and advertisers may be in directcommunication with each other and may communicate via computersconnected via the Internet 101.

Advertisers may include any entities having online advertisements (e.g.,banner ads, display ads, rich media ads, pop-ups, etc.) which theadvertisers may wish to be displayed to online users. Advertisers mayinteract with publisher servers 112-118, ad servers, and syndicationservers 150-156 of the CDN, directly or indirectly through computersconnected to the Internet 101. Thus, advertisers may be able tocommunicate advertising information, such as ad information, ad sizes,targeting information, consumer information, budget information, etc.,to other entities in environment 100.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart of an exemplary method 300 for performingthe techniques of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, method 300may be performed entirely by syndication server systems 150. In oneembodiment, method 300 may be performed by a combination of publisher110 CMS systems 112-118 and syndication server systems 150-156, over oneor both of the depicted channel or the Internet 101.

As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment, method 300 may include receiving,from a user's mobile device, a request for a web page hosted by apublisher's content management system (“CMS”), the request including theURL of the requested web site (step 302). For example, one or more ofuser devices 102 may be executing a mobile application and a user mayclick, tap, or otherwise select a link or URL from within the mobileapplication. In one embodiment, the user's selection of a web page linkmay be received as a request at the CMS systems 112 of the publisher110, which in some embodiments, may be received at the rules engine 120of the CMS systems 112 (if present).

Method 300 may further include applying a rules engine to analyze thereceived URL according to a set of rules, the set of rules identifyingone or more website types (e.g., URLs, domains, etc.) and/or one or morereferrers (e.g., a social network) (step 304). For example, in oneembodiment, the applied rules engine may be rules engine 120, i.e., inthe event that the publisher has maintained its own links and elected toimplement its own rules engine 120 within its CMS systems 112 forselectively redirecting content requests to the syndication servers 150.In another embodiment, the applied rules engine may be rules engine 158,i.e., in the event the publisher has elected to instead use a linkgenerator for enabling the syndication server systems 150 to performselective redirecting and serving of content.

Method 300 may further include, if the received URL satisfies the rulesengine, redirecting the received request to a syndication server systemhosted within a global content distribution network (“CDN”), the CDNmaintaining fast-loading, templatized web-, mobile-, and/orapp-formatted versions of the web page (step 306). For example, asdescribed above, if the web page requested by the user devices 102satisfies certain criteria, then the syndication server systems 150 maybe identified as the desired source of the requested content. Forexample, in one embodiment, the publisher might have established a rulethat if any client device 102 requests any web page of the domain“huffingtonpost.com” from the Facebook mobile application (i.e., withreferrer=Facebook.com), then the syndication server systems 150 would beidentified as the desired source of the content to enable fasttransmission and loading of pre-cached text and image content to theFacebook application running on the mobile device 102.

Method 300 may further include optionally adding a URL of the web pageto a missing content queue and redirecting the request to a web serverof the publisher's CMS if the CDN syndication server does not contain asuitable web-, mobile-, and/or app-formatted (as applicable) version ofthe web page (step 308). For example, as described above, if the content(e.g., binary, compressed text and images) of the requested content isnot already cached within one or more of the web-formatted contentdatabase 152, mobile formatted content database 154, and/orapp-formatted content database 156, then the syndication server system150 may add the URL of the requested web page to missing content queue160 to place the web page in a job queue for obtaining and compressingthe content of the web page within the suitable database for subsequentfast loading to the next user device 102 that requests that web page.

Method 300 may further include delivering a package of binary compressedcontent of the web page to a stub page cached at the user's mobiledevice by the CDN syndication server, optionally using recirculation andmonetization components chosen by the publisher (step 310). For example,assuming that the applicable database 152-156 of the syndication serversystems 150 contains the content of the requested web page, then thesyndication server systems 150 may retrieve the content of the requestedweb page from the applicable database and send the content over theInternet 101 to the mobile device 102 for loading within its mobileapplication. As described above, in one embodiment, the syndicationserver systems 150 may cause the cache, in the client device's localbrowser, a stub page that is configured to make a single binary call forweb page content to be loaded up within the mobile application'swebview. Thus, the first time that any user across the network requestsa web page that satisfies the given criteria (e.g., an opted-inpublisher's page referred by a given social networking application), thesyndication server systems 150 will cache in the device's local browsera small stub page that, from then on, will make a single binary HTTPcall to the server for receiving package of binary compressed lumpedcontent of all the text and images rendering in its document objectmodel on the client side. Thus, the second time (say, for example, outof a million), that an article is requested, the request may be merely acache hit on the client to the stub page, i.e., a single HTTP call outfor all the content to load. Thus, the user is already reading thecontent, and then all the secondary back-and-forth pixels may be firedfor content measurement, data collection, etc., in a delay-loadasynchronous packaging container.

Any of client devices 102, publisher 110 CMS servers 112-118, andsyndication server systems 150-156 may include any type or combinationof computing systems, such as handheld devices, personal computers,servers, clustered computing machines, and/or cloud computing systems.In one embodiment, client devices 102, publisher 110 CMS servers112-118, and syndication server systems 150-156 may be an assembly ofhardware, including a memory, a central processing unit (“CPU”), and/oroptionally a user interface. The memory may include any type of RAM orROM embodied in a physical storage medium, such as magnetic storageincluding floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape; semiconductorstorage such as solid state disk (“SSD”) or flash memory; optical discstorage; or magneto-optical disc storage. The CPU may include one ormore processors for processing data according to instructions stored inthe memory. The functions of the processor may be provided by a singlededicated processor or by a plurality of processors. Moreover, theprocessor may include, without limitation, digital signal processor(“DSP”) hardware, or any other hardware capable of executing software.The user interface may include any type or combination of input/outputdevices, such as a display monitor, touchpad, touchscreen, microphone,camera, keyboard, and/or mouse.

As shown in FIG. 4, computer system 400 includes a central processingunit (CPU) 420. CPU 420 may be any type of processor device including,for example, any type of special purpose or a general-purposemicroprocessor device. As will be appreciated by persons skilled in therelevant art, CPU 420 also may be a single processor in amulti-core/multiprocessor system, such system operating alone, or in acluster of computing devices operating in a cluster or server farm. CPU420 is connected to a data communication infrastructure 410, forexample, a bus, message queue, network, or multi-core message-passingscheme.

Computer system 400 also includes a main memory 440, for example, randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 430.Secondary memory 430, e.g., a read-only memory (ROM), may be, forexample, a hard disk drive or a removable storage drive. Such aremovable storage drive may comprise, for example, a floppy disk drive,a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a flash memory, or thelike. The removable storage drive in this example reads from and/orwrites to a removable storage unit in a well-known manner. The removablestorage unit may comprise a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk,etc. which is read by and written to by the removable storage drive. Aswill be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant art, such aremovable storage unit generally includes a computer usable storagemedium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In alternative implementations, secondary memory 430 may include othersimilar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system 400. Examples of such means may include aprogram cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in videogame devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM, or PROM) andassociated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces,which allow software and data to be transferred from a removable storageunit to computer system 400.

Computer system 400 may also include a communications interface (“COM”)460. Communications interface 460 allows software and data to betransferred between computer system 400 and external devices.Communications interface 460 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot andcard, or the like. Software and data transferred via communicationsinterface 460 may be in the form of signals, which may be electronic,electromagnetic, optical, or other signals capable of being received bycommunications interface 460. These signals may be provided tocommunications interface 460 via a communications path of computersystem 400, which may be implemented using, for example, wire or cable,fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link or othercommunications channels.

Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or“articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable codeand/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type ofmachine readable medium. “Storage” type media include any or all of thetangible memory of the computers, processors or the like, or associatedmodules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives,disk drives and the like, which may provide non-transitory storage atany time for the software programming. All or portions of the softwaremay at times be communicated through the Internet or various othertelecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enableloading of the software from one computer or processor into another, forexample, from a management server or host computer of the mobilecommunication network into the computer platform of a server and/or froma server to the mobile device. Thus, another type of media that may bearthe software elements includes optical, electrical and electromagneticwaves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices,through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links.The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wirelesslinks, optical links, or the like, also may be considered as mediabearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted tonon-transitory, tangible “storage” media, terms such as computer ormachine “readable medium” refer to any medium that participates inproviding instructions to a processor for execution.

While the presently disclosed sharing application, methods, devices, andsystems are described with exemplary reference to mobile applicationsand to transmitting HTTP data, it should be appreciated that thepresently disclosed embodiments may be applicable to any environment,such as a desktop or laptop computer, an automobile entertainmentsystem, a home entertainment system, etc. Also, the presently disclosedembodiments may be applicable to any type of Internet protocol that isequivalent or successor to HTTP.

The many features and advantages of the disclosure are apparent from thedetailed specification, and thus, it is intended by the appended claimsto cover all such features and advantages of the disclosure which fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the disclosure. Further, sincenumerous modifications and variations will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to theexact construction and operation illustrated and described, andaccordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resortedto, falling within the scope of the disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for executing anonline distribution of electronic content the method including:receiving, from a user's mobile device, a request for a web page hostedby a publisher's content management system (“CMS”), the requestincluding the URL of the requested web page; applying a rules engine toanalyze the received URL according to a set of rules, the set of rulesidentifying one or more website types and/or one or more referrers; ifthe received URL satisfies the rules engine, redirecting the receivedrequest to a syndication server system hosted within a global contentdistribution network (“CDN”), the CDN maintaining fast templatized web-,mobile-, and/or app-formatted versions of the requested web page; inresponse to the received request for the requested web page being asecond or subsequent request for the requested web page and thesyndication server system having previously cached a stub page for therequested web page in the user's mobile device, delivering from thesyndication server system a package of binary compressed content of therequested web page to the stub page cached at the user's mobile device,using recirculation and monetization components chosen by the publisher;if the syndication server system does not contain a suitable web-,mobile-, and/or app-formatted version of the requested web page, thenadding a URL of the requested web page to a missing content queue andredirecting the request to a web server of the publisher's CMS.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or morereferrers of the set of rules comprises one or more social networkingdomains and the step of delivering a package of binary compressedcontent of the requested web page comprises delivering the package to awebview within a social networking mobile application.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or morereferrers of the set of rules comprises one or more mobile applicationdomains and the step of delivering a package of binary compressedcontent of the requested web page comprises delivering the package to awebview within a mobile application.
 4. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, wherein the rules engine is executed on the CMS of thepublisher.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein therules engine is executed on the syndication server system.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, upondelivering a package of binary compressed content of the requested webpage to a stub page cached at the user's mobile device, further enablingthe client device to execute secondary pixel calls for contentmeasurement or data collection.
 7. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the syndication server system automatically obtainstext and images of web pages upon receiving a first user device requestfor the requested web page, and stores the text and images in one ormore of a web, mobile, or app formatted content database.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the syndication serversystem is configured to generate the stub page on a per-web-page,per-domain, or per-user basis.
 9. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the CMS system of the publisher and the syndicationserver system are configured to communicate with each other over theInternet or through an RSS channel.
 10. A system for executing onlinedistribution of content, the system including: a computer readable datastorage device storing instructions for executing a distribution ofcontent; and a processor configured to execute the instructions toperform a method including: receiving, from a user's mobile device, arequest for a web page hosted by a publisher's content management system(“CMS”), the request including the URL of the requested web page;applying a rules engine to analyze the received URL according to a setof rules, the set of rules identifying one or more website types and/orone or more referrers; if the received URL satisfies the rules engine,redirecting the received request to a syndication server system hostedwithin a global content distribution network (“CDN”), the CDNmaintaining fast templatized web-, mobile-, and/or app-formattedversions of the requested web page; in response to the received requestfor the requested web page being a second or subsequent request for therequested web page and the syndication server system having previouslycached a stub page for the requested web page in the user's mobiledevice, delivering from the syndication server system a package ofbinary compressed content of the requested web page to the stub pagecached at the user's mobile device, using recirculation and monetizationcomponents chosen by the publisher; if the syndication server systemdoes not contain a suitable web-, mobile-, and/or app-formatted versionof the requested web page, then adding a URL of the requested web pageto a missing content queue and redirecting the request to a web serverof the publisher's CMS.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one ormore referrers of the set of rules comprises one or more socialnetworking domains and the step of delivering a package of binarycompressed content of the requested web page comprises delivering thepackage to a webview within a social networking mobile application. 12.The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more referrers of the set ofrules comprises one or more mobile application domains and the step ofdelivering a package of binary compressed content of the requested webpage comprises delivering the package to a webview within a mobileapplication.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the rules engine isexecuted on the CMS of the publisher.
 14. The system of claim 10,wherein the rules engine is executed on the syndication server system.15. The system of claim 10, further comprising, upon delivering apackage of binary compressed content of the requested web page to a stubpage cached at the user's mobile device, further enabling the clientdevice to execute secondary pixel calls for content measurement or datacollection.
 16. The system of claim 10, wherein the syndication serversystem automatically obtains text and images of web pages upon receivinga first user device request for the requested web page, and stores thetext and images in one or more of a web, mobile, or app formattedcontent database.
 17. The system of claim 10, wherein the syndicationserver system is configured to generate the stub page on a per-web-page,per-domain, or per-user basis.
 18. The system of claim 10, wherein theCMS system of the publisher and the syndication server system areconfigured to communicate with each other over the Internet or throughan RSS channel.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storinginstructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor toexecute online distribution of electronic content, including: receiving,from a user's mobile device, a request for a web page hosted by apublisher's content management system (“CMS”), the request including theURL of the requested web page; applying a rules engine to analyze thereceived URL according to a set of rules, the set of rules identifyingone or more website types and/or one or more referrers; if the receivedURL satisfies the rules engine, redirecting the received request to asyndication server system hosted within a global content distributionnetwork (“CDN”), the CDN maintaining fast templatized web-, mobile-,and/or app-formatted versions of the requested web page; in response tothe received request for the requested web page being a second orsubsequent request for the requested web page and the syndication serversystem having previously cached a stub page for the requested web pagein the user's mobile device, delivering from the syndication serversystem a package of binary compressed content of the requested web pageto the stub page cached at the user's mobile device, using recirculationand monetization components chosen by the publisher; if the syndicationserver system does not contain a suitable web-, mobile-, and/orapp-formatted version of the requested web page, then adding a URL ofthe requested web page to a missing content queue and redirecting therequest to a web server of the publisher's CMS.
 20. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the one or more referrersof the set of rules comprises one or more social networking domains andthe step of delivering a package of binary compressed content of therequested web page comprises delivering the package to a webview withina social networking mobile application.